War Games
by FoxWolf64
Summary: Wendy O. Koopa and the other koopalings play a game of Capture-The-Flag around the castle, filled with strategy, action, and deception.


**War Games**

Wendy sat in the quiet library, reading a glamour magazine. Ludwig walked in, seeing what she was reading.

"Really?" he shook his head. "That's not a real book. Try to get something more productive."

"I'm not trying, Kooky," she backsassed. "I'm just sitting here because it's quiet, and I don't have to be constantly be annoyed by...well, the others."

"Whatever." Ludwig rolled his eyes and walked to another table to work on new symphonies for Bowser.

Wendy slumped down in her chair, continuing to read (looking at pictures of new perfume brands). _Ugh, Princess Peach is coming up with a perfume? When will that little brat learn to shut up? _She was about to turn the page when she heard Kamek's siren throughout the castle. She closed the magazine, speedwalked out of the library, and went into the elevator.

"Wendy! Wait!" Ludwig shouted as the elevator door closed. Wendy pulled one of her evil grins at him right before the door closed. She arrived downstairs, seeing that Morton was already there. She stood by the elevator door, playing with her bracelets, and before she knew it, the other koopalings were finally gathered in the main room. Iggy brought a mechanical koopa with him.

"Did you make that?" Wendy asked.

"Yeah. After all of that business with Mecha Bowser, Kamek suggested I try inventing out. So now the lab is mine. I'm making quite a bit of progress. I'm working on the largest bullet bill EVER! It will be our superweapon!" Iggy explained.

Wendy stood there, glaring at Iggy. "That conversation went downhill, fast."

"Agreed," Iggy replied, walking away.

After a few minutes, Bowser and Bowser Jr. entered the room. Bowser carried Junior on his back, who wove a colorful paintbrush in the air. Kamek followed right behind them.

"As you can see," Bowser began, "Junior and I have returned from vacation, and I've been wondering how your battle skills have changed over the last year, after our defeat at Dinosaur Land. So, to test it out, Kamek and I have agreed to host a Capture-the-Flag game."

Wendy moaned, seeing everybody else cheering. She buried her face in her magazine.

"Here are the rules. Junior, would you like to say them?" Bowser asked, looking at Junior on his back.

Junior nodded. "There are 2 flags, one for each team. You must hide your flag somewhere in the territory given to you in the next few minutes. Your goal is to find the other team's flag, and bring it back to your area without getting caught. If you get caught, you get in the other team's jail, and can't escape until somebody who isn't in jail gets you out."

"Impressive for two years old, huh?" Bowser smiled, taking Junior off his shoulder and putting his arm around him. "Anyway, Kamek will announce the teams and areas they cover:"

Kamek pulled out a few papers. "Team One consists of: Ludwig, Iggy, Roy, and Larry. Territories include the entire east wing of the castle: the library, the infirmary, the royal lava hall, and the throne room."

Iggy and Roy high-fived, and Ludwig and Larry gave each other a thumbs-up. Wendy noticed Larry and Ludwig had different colored shells than last time from the makeover. Larry got cyan, and Ludwig dark blue.

Kamek continued. "Team Two consists of the rest of you: Morton, Wendy, and Lemmy. To even it out, Bowser Jr. will be joining you. You guys will get the entire west wing: the bedrooms, the lounge, the kitchen and dining hall, and the garage."

Bowser Jr. leapt out of his father's arms, and joined Team Two. Lemmy and Morton did a chest bump, while Wendy rolled her eyes and stood away from her group. _Why am I stuck with all the losers? What did I ever do?_

"Also, you will be allowed to use your wands and whatever other abilities you may have. Now, discuss with your team for 10 minutes, and then I will start. Remember: the main room will be used as the border for both territories."

Wendy walked over to the door to the west wing. "Guys, let's talk about our strategy over here so they don't hear us," she said, leading them to the lounge. They all sat around a table, while they discussed their plans. "So," started Lemmy. "Where should we hide the flag, first of all?"

"People are automatically going to suspect a discreet place, so let's hide it in plain sight," Wendy suggested.

"But where would we put it without being TOO obvious?" Morton questioned.

"Hide it among the flags in the garage. It'll blend right in."

"Yeah, perfect!" Lemmy cheered. "And if they do notice it, they'll have trouble getting it down, and by the time they do have it, we'll have found them and will have already had time to take them to the jail."

"Speaking of which, where is our jail?" Wendy pondered.

"Let's have it in one of the bedrooms," Junior brought up.

"But who's bedroom?" Lemmy asked.

"Mine'll do," Morton offered. "It's kind of messy, and hard to get out of."

"So Morton's room is the jail," Wendy stated, laughing at just saying that sentence. "Who's going over to look for the other team's flag?"

"I'd say you and Lemmy," Junior commented. "Morton and I will do our best defending our area."

"Alright, Wendy! Let's do this!" Lemmy said excitedly.

Wendy sighed. _Why must I do this? This is so degrading._ "First, let's place the flag," she added.

Out in the garage, Lemmy was balancing on the largest bouncy ball ever. He was able to replace the game flag with the Goomba Federation flag. They hid that flag behind a couch in the lounge as a decoy, sticking the pole out from under the couch. Once Kamek called "go," Wendy and Lemmy met by the main room.

"So, Wendy. I'll go the main route, and you can go the secret route."

"Secret route? What?"

"You know, the basement? They'll be so distracted with me, they won't even notice you crawled in. It could work."

"Whatever you say, I guess..." Wendy agreed, going down to the basement. She walked through the dim stone corridors filled at the bottom with water, and then heard footsteps. She pointed her wand at Larry, creating a ring around him and not letting him move. He threw his hands up in surrender.

"Relax, I was going to that side just to do stuff," he bluffed.

"Don't even try doing that. That's my technique."

"Haha, I knew it!" Larry grinned. "HEY GUYS! WENDY DID COME DOWN HERE!"

Suddenly, Ludwig and Iggy rushed down the hallway. "Oh, shell," Wendy muttered. She began casting rings, but they fell in the wrong places, and soon she was being carried to the other team's jail: the infirmary. She sat on a hospital bed as Iggy stood at the doorway.

For awhile, she stood waiting, then heard an announcement from the main room. "FIRST WIN FOR TEAM ONE!" Iggy did a fist pump, and ran down to the main room, Wendy following close behind. She met up with the rest of the team for 10 minutes before the next round.

"So...they were prepared, huh?" Lemmy said, sighing.

"I wonder how they found the flag, though," Junior pondered. "I thought it was such a clever idea."

"I think this time, we should hide it inside one of the airships," Wendy suggested. "Who's airship has a lot of flags?"

"Mine doesn't, but that really doesn't matter now," Lemmy said. "We could hide it in yours."

"Are you ridiculous? I..." She thought for a moment. "Okay, let's do it."

They ended up putting the flag behind a poster in Wendy's airship, putting the pole in Morton's room. When Kamek started, Wendy and Lemmy discussed their offensive strategy.

"So, I'll ride in on that big circus ball, and you cover for me with your awesome rings. Correct?"

"I guess so, the old one turned out horribly. I think this will work."

Lemmy rode into the east wing on his giant ball, with Wendy swirling around him and protecting him. When he couldn't go into the royal hall, Wendy dashed in, dodging all the traps, and getting into the throne room. She found the flag right on the wall, but right as she was about to grab it, "SECOND WIN FOR TEAM ONE!"

_What? How? _Wendy thought as she moved back into the lounge to discuss their next strategy.

"I...have no idea how they found the flag that time," Junior stated, representing all of their thoughts.

Suddenly, it hit Wendy like a red shell. _The basement!_ "They set up that whole basement trap so we don't go down that way the next time, and they took advantage of it! Gosh, I am such an idiot!"

"What can we do to prevent them from going that way?" Morton asked.

Another idea hit Wendy, this time like a blue shell knocking her right out of first place. "Flood the basement," she said. "They won't even try swimming that way."

"Perfect!" Lemmy shouted. "But where should we hide the flag this time?"

"Let's just put it under the dining room table," Morton said. Everybody seemed to agree with that.

Wendy destroyed 2 pipes, fully flooding the entire basement hall. Kamek once again announced to go, and Wendy and Lemmy ran across the main room. Then, they decided to split up. Lemmy went into the royal hall and throne room, and Wendy went into the library.

Due to all the bookshelves she'd have to look at, she used her wand to knock out all the books off the shelves, and she found it, eventually, floating off the top shelf. She caught it, and at that moment, Ludwig stood right at the doorway, blocking it. Wendy smirked.

"I've got the flag right here," she began to taunt.

"I see that very well," Ludwig responded.

"You want it?"

"Very much."

"Come and get it." Wendy wove the flag just like a bullfighter. Ludwig charged after her, but she quickly moved out of his way, over to the doorway, closing the door and locking it. She quickly ran down the hall, hearing banging on the door, then heard it get knocked down.

Ludwig was now furious, chasing after her throughout the halls of the East Wing. Finally reaching the main room, she dodged Ludwig's fireballs and Iggy's blasts from his wand. She stood in front of Kamek, proudly handing him the flag. He looked at her, then looked at the flag, then called out, "FIRST WIN FOR TEAM TWO!"

Lemmy, Morton, and Junior came out cheering. "We finally won! We won!" Lemmy sang. Wendy threw her wand up in the air and caught it right back.

"That was perfect!" Morton exclaimed. "We need to do that all over again!"

Everybody stopped to glare at Morton, then continued their celebration.

Everything was mainly the same for the next rounds. Wendy's team won the next one narrowly after Wendy almost broke her leg running down the stairs, Ludwig's team won the one after that after Roy and Larry had to push Morton's airship off of the flag, and Wendy's team won again after Lemmy caught the other team off guard with his duplicates.

They all met in the main room, sitting before Kamek. "So, the score so far is 3-3. Whoever wins this one wins the entire competition. So get your game on, kids."

For the next 10 minutes, Team Two sat in the lounge discussing their next plan.

"So...the basement flooded, the strangest hiding places, and using magic. What's next?" Wendy started the meeting.

"I think we should drain the basement. It'll catch them off guard, since they think it's still flooded," Lemmy suggested.

"Yeah, that's a pretty good idea," Morton mused. "Wendy could go down that way again, and you could go the main route."

"I'm fine with that if everybody else is," Junior added, and everybody else nodded.

"Where should we hide the flag this time?" Lemmy asked.

"I'd say the kitchen," Morton brought up. "We haven't hid it there yet."

They hid it up in one of the cupboards, and when the start was announced, Wendy drained the water from the basement and ran down the hallway. Coming to the other side, she found where they had decided to hide the flag: right in the flooded basement.

It was wet, dripping, and gross, but she picked it up and immediately dashed down the east wing. Ludwig saw her, and began to chase her, but she used a ring to tie him there. However, Iggy grabbed her by the shell and took her to the jail in the infirmary.

She laid down on the bed. _They already have the advantage. They're clearly going to win it. Why shouldn't they? Their leader is the smartest person in the world!_

She began to fall asleep, when Lemmy barged in the room and grabbed her by the hand. "I have the flag! Let's go before it's too late!" She ran down the hallway with Lemmy, mostly being dragged than running.

Arriving at the main room, they saw Roy also head for Kamek. Both groups dropped the flag at the same time. Kamek observed the 2 groups, and made a single judgement. "Flip a coin. One side has 1, the other with 2. The number that is on top is the winner.

Kamek grabbed the coin, and flicked it into the air. It seemed to be real-life slow motion for everybody in that room. The coin flipped, turned, and eventually landed on its side. The whole castle was silent, waiting for it to drop. And it dropped, with a number 2 showing.

"TEAM TWO ARE THE WINNERS!" Kamek announced as Team 2 exchanged high-fives and hugs. The 2 teams shook each others hands, and then everybody returned to their original business.

Wendy returned to the library, placing the books back where they belonged, and continued reading her magazine. Ludwig walked in, and she smiled at him. "Nice job today, Kooky," she said. "It took everything to not slow down. It was pretty nice today."

Ludwig, smiled back. "Thanks. You were pretty good too." Wendy shrugged, then stuck her nose back in her "book."


End file.
